Saturday, 16 July 2011

Warlord Churchill - Normandy Stalwart

I really like the Churchill visually, probably my favorite Allied vehicle. As a painting canvas the straight surfaces and lines are great to show a variation of tonal finishes. Anyway, you've had the WIP shots, now here's the finished article. Painted as it comes, no mods (as per Warlord display criteria). Nice solid kit with no fiddly bits, just the Mg's, barrel and TC hatches to add on. The pictures show two different lighting settings, am not convinced which is best. I've spent some additional time distressing the paint finish, not the "en vogue" gamers huge over scale scratches (its depicted as Normandy, so not in theatre long enough for that Ostfront vibe!) but rather tone changes and fading combined with dust. Most pictures and movie reels show a heavy layer of dust, i am working up to this as i feel its difficult to pull off convincingly in 1/56th without it looking like a newbies bad hair day with MIG pigments (which incidentally guys, aren't the panacea everyone thinks they are!).

The TC is a Warlord figure but is not included in the kit (one of my stock dummies). Hopefully we'll see a Crocodile soon as well. I now have a raft of new Warlord Hun opposition awaiting a start date, so Normandy fans will be pleased over the next couple of months.

The techniques are subtle so warrant a full screen, please double click for "warts and all" or alternatively visit my flickr for maximum viewing pleasure.

Hi Paul, regards your previous email, if you didnt get any joy from Chris, maybe approach Paul Sawyer at Warlord, he will have this one, two brens, the Wittman Tiger and most of the rest of his range as display pieces. Some cool Hun stuiff coming thorugh as well so, maybe a collaboration is in order?

Hi Neil, the Churchill is my favorite allied tank to, when I was a kid I used to visit my granddads, and he had all my dads and uncles toys in a big box, there was an old 1/72 Airfix Churchill with no tracks, man I loved that tank, great look Churchill there.

Hey, I resemble that remark! I shall continue to play with MIGs as they took my painting to the next level, but I shall also be keeping an eye on your stuff, striving to at least come closer to what you do.

I think the comment summed up my opinion about my own work perfectly!Ok, question 1: having played a bit with just pigment and fixative, what should be my next step? What do I combine the pigments with?